Andres Gonzales, Fu Manchu Golfer

Jun 15, 2011 11:39 pm ET

Reuters

Andres Gonzales watches his tee shot during his practice round at the U.S. Open Wednesday.

Stephanie Wei coaxed this semi-serious commentary out of PGA Tour rookie and first-time U.S. Open competitor Andres Gonzales about his new experiences this week. Gonzales, 28, hails from Olympia, Wash., where he developed a bone-dry sense of jokey irony to go with his game. (Wei and Gonzales have been friends since high school, when they took lessons from the same swing coach and played in many junior golf tournaments together.)

My flight was delayed in Charlotte and I didn’t get in to the D.C. area until 1:45 a.m. Monday morning. It was brutal, I didn’t get any sleep. As soon as we arrived at the airport in Baltimore, our driver was nowhere to be found to take us to the hotel. Not that I am really used to drivers, but it is the U.S. Open and they say that they provide them. Granted, we were an hour and 45 minutes late, but that was just another thing to end a whole night that went wrong.